Figure 1. Lovastatin treatment prevents contextual and aversive memory impairment after CM.

C57BL/6 mice (n = 12–20/group) were infected with PbA (10⁶ PRBC). As a control, one group was inoculated with the same number of uninfected RBC (n = 6–12/group). Starting on day 6-post infection, uninfected and PbA-infected mice were divided into 2 groups and treated orally with chloroquine (25 mg/kg b.w.), or with the combination of chloroquine/lovastatin for 7 days. On days 15 and 16 post-infection all the animals were submitted to open field training and test sessions (A–B), and to inhibitory avoidance sessions tasks (C–D). Data are expressed as mean ± SEM of crossings (A) and rearings (B) in training (gray bars) and test (black bars) sessions. *Significant difference between groups in training and test sessions (p<0.05, Student's t test). C–D: animals were subjected to a training session in which the latency time on the platform is recorded when an electrical shock is given immediately after the mice step down onto the bars. (C) 1.5 (Short-term memory) and (D) 24 h (long-term memory) aversive memory was tested by recording the latency time on the platform (with a cut-off of 180 sec). Data are expressed as individual values and horizontal lines represent the mean of latency, in seconds; *Significant difference compared with uninfected controls and between infected groups (comparisons among groups were performed by Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.05).